The facility is the second-largest project in the Los Angeles Community College District’s Sustainable Building Program. The complex is expected to serve as the home of the college’s art collection and programs.
Spanning 160,000 square feet, the project comprises three buildings: the Vincent Price Art Museum; the Dance, Music and Visual Arts building; and the Theatre Arts building. The complex was designed to accommodate students and guests while encouraging student collaboration and joint creativity across the various disciplines. It features several outdoor patios that function as art areas, rehearsal space and informal performance areas.
The four-storey Vincent Price Art Museum spans 40,000 square feet and houses the Thomas Silliman Vault and a 6,000 square feet art storage space equipped with custom-designed units and a heating, ventilation and air conditioning system designed for safe art storage. It also features preparation workshops, seven gallery spaces and a 116-seat lecture hall for art history courses.
The two-storey Dance, Music and Visual Arts building spans 77,000 square feet and includes a 350-fixed seat recital hall for music and dance performances, as well as several studios for class instruction. The recital hall is equipped with the latest audio visual and theater lighting systems. Locker rooms and areas designed for costume storage are also featured.
The visual arts wing features painting, sculpture, print making, ceramics/sculpture, design and drawing studios. The ceramics area is equipped with an indoor/outdoor porch that houses five gas kilns and one electric kiln for firing student ceramic projects. The music wing features a choir and music library, music computer labs and rehearsal space, equipped with the latest audio-visual systems and smart classroom equipment. There is also an onsite recording studio to provide student musicians with practical recording and production experience.
The two-storey Theater Arts building spans 42,000 square feet and features two theaters. One is a 167-fixed seat drama theater with traditional stage and rigging equipped with the latest audio visual and theater lighting systems while the other is a black box theater that allows flexible seating for various staging configurations, including theater-in-the-round productions. A costume workshop, makeup and design lab, rehearsal classroom and stage workshops are also featured that allow classes to take place while productions are being prepared.
The Performing & Fine Arts Complex also features a host of sustainable elements including a landscape irrigation drip system that saves water and fertilizer; low water consumption bathroom fixtures, reducing water usage by 30%; use of low volatile organic compound materials for clean indoor air quality; redirection of more than 80% of both demolished and construction debris from disposal to landfills and incinerators; using more than 34% of recycled materials including steel studs, door and frames, insulation, louvers, fly ash, structural steel and rebar; and a cool roof system which reduces heat island effects and maximises energy savings.
East Los Angeles College is one of the nine colleges that form the Los Angeles Community College District. Funds for the complex came from the $6 billion LACCD construction program approved by Los Angeles voters.
